Museum of Glass Pinhole

Museum of Glass - Tacoma

Yesterday, I took advantage of the nice weather to run over to Tacoma to test my pinhole camera. The Zero Image had been scratching my negatives but I was blaming it on the lab that processes my color film (I haven't been shooting a ton of black and white, which I process myself, so I hadn't realized the problem was my camera). (Sorry, lab processor, for thinking you had dirty film spools.) I added a little gaffer's tape to the contact points between the camera and the film and, voilá, problem solved. This means I'm ready for Worldwide Pinhole Day on Sunday. Hurray!

Recent pinhole

This photo was taken with the Zero Image pinhole camera. I took it in the Tide Flats area of Tacoma. I especially love the glowing amber color that can be seen inside the pipes.

Trains on the move

We decided to have a date afternoon today. This meant we went to a couple museums, had coffee and then saw "Lincoln" at the Grand. Excellent movie with acting rather than action (what a novel idea).

The Washington State history museum is located in Tacoma and always has something interesting to look at and ponder. There is a large model train on permanent display that is fun to look at...very detailed (it's a realistic representation of the historical rail lines in the area). Anyhow, I took this picture while the trains were in motion. I put the shutter speed down to about an 1/8 of a second which gives the picture the effect of the train speeding through the scene.

More rust

More rusty surfaces from the latest Tacoma Tide Flats photo tour...

My intention is to use this surface in a digital collage but I haven't gotten around to it yet. It's still cool-looking as a stand-alone piece.

Rusty Tacoma

One of the great features of old, industrial cities is the decay and rust that can be found despite all efforts of city councils to modernize and "prettify." Tacoma has a great industrial area that has many abandoned spaces side-by-side with functioning buildings and industries.

Today we took an early morning photo wander around Tacoma's Tide Flats area with a friend. I schlepped my Fujica 6x4.5 and Zero Image pinhole cameras along with the Canon G9 (I can never be accused of favoring one camera over another). Took lots of rust photos with the idea of using them for textures in digital collage. However, I may just keep some of them as stand-alone photos since they're so cool looking.

I took a G9 macro shot of these rusty nails that were scattered on a cruddy old forklift.

Rusty nails

It never ceases to amaze me how many photo-worthy scenes I can find just by stepping in close.

A Tacoma treat

While driving along Schuster Parkway in Tacoma this evening, I glanced over at the Simpson Kraft paper mill and saw the most beautiful light on the plant. Though I was tempted to continue down the highway, I reminded myself that I would regret not stopping to take a few shots (I had about seven more shots left in my Fujica 6x4.5 that I was itching to blow through). Art trumped fatigue and I pulled over into Thea Foss park.

I walked down to the metal dock and started snapping and chatting to an after-work fisherman about the beautiful light and fish and whether it was possible for me to reach down and grab one of the salmon that were up against the dock. While I was contemplating the logistics of transporting a fish in my car without plastic bags, the fisherman said, "Look, there's a boat coming." I turned to look and saw a dragon boat crew paddling toward us. I then remembered it was Thursday and my mother was probably one of the paddlers. I knew my friend Robyn and her husband Steve would definitely be there. Lo and behold, there Kathleen was in her cute purple jacket and purple sunglasses.

Kathleen in her natural habitat & Steve the oarsman

The dragon boat leader told me that a tug was about to be launched from Martinec and I could go witness it if I jumped in my car and ran down there. Again, I considered ditching the idea, but how often does a girl from NJ get to see a tugboat hit the water for the first time. I drove down to Johnny's dock and joined the small but friendly crowd of people gathered to watch the event. The paddlers decided to row there.

Mt. Rainier, a dragon boat and the 11th St. Bridge - Ah, Tacoma.

Here's a shot of the tugboat hitting the water. Glory be! It floats! A tug is born. A great way to end a late September day. I should trust my photo instincts more often.

Have I told you how much I love bees?

The poor maligned bee. Every yellow jacket and vicious hornet out there gets labeled by frightened people as "bees." Little do they know that a bee is a lovely little creature that just wants to go on its search for pollen and a good flower to laze out in. I once read that bees actually engage in a lot of downtime. So the phrase, "busy as a bee" really means that you're kind of a lazy person always looking for a sunny spot to have a lie down.

How I love the bees especially when they are hanging out in the dahlia garden at Pt. Defiance Park. The dahlias are exceedingly gorgeous right now so I would recommend a visit if you're in the Tacoma region.

Stitch function on the Canon G9

I took a bike ride through the Tacoma tide flats with my G9 the other day and decided to test out the stitch function on the camera. I didn't spend any time in post working on the images beyond stitching them into a panorama in Photoshop. If you look at the telephone wires, you'll see some flaws. I was more interested in seeing what I could do quickly and I'm pretty pleased with the results. The final file size, after flattening and compressing as a TIF, was about 190 MB so this is a bit of a space hog. However, it was made out of 5 images so it's not really surprising the file would be so large in size.

Building in the Tacoma Tide Flats - late day

The light was great and the subject matter is just so appealing.

Summertime, summertime, sum sum summertime

It appears that summer has finally arrived in the Pacific NW. After the lovely weather we experienced in Europe, it was rather grim to come back to the cold, the grey and the rain. Don't get me wrong...I hate it when people complain about the weather here. Most of the time, I don't mind it - rain down here means snow in the mountains much of the time. Plus, the moisty air keeps my complexion in peachy condition and makes for lots of healthy plants. There are times, however, when I just crave sunlight and the ability to walk around without a sweater close at hand. All that being said, I think I can embrace the sunshine without fear and the expectation that it will be snatched from me in the morning (for a while at least).

In celebration of the sun, I've taken a couple bike rides in my tank top (working frantically on my tan) and plan on hacking some blackberries in my overgrown yard. Later on I may even sit on the deck with a book and a beer - that is if I can mellow out enough to relax for a while. I've been spending a lot of time in my dark office working on photos - good for the amount of work I'm doing, bad for not maximizing my outdoors time. I've tried working on the laptop in the bright sunlight, but you know how successful that would be...

Last night, we went to Tacoma for dinner and a movie ("Buck" - worth watching - makes me miss having an animal in my life). Afterwards, we went down to the 11th Street bridge to take photos. The light had just shifted so I was a bit disappointed, but Mt. Rainier had its unique, rosy, end-of-the-day glow so I couldn't be too sad. The bridge is wrapped in large sheets of plastic because it is undergoing major structural work. It seems like the plastic wrap is gradually consuming the bridge. Here's one of the shots I took - not too great, but it's got a nice shot of Rainier framed under the bridge.